New Chance
by justlobe
Summary: Just a one-shot about something i dreamed yesterday. It counts as a fic to Iane casey's birthday.


She was bored. She weren't supposed to be there again. She told her assistant that she would not go to any other conference out of state this month, but there she was, at San Francisco, alone in a hotel room.

She had finished this new study about diabetes so now she was receiving a lot of invitations to give lectures about it.

It was early so she decided to use the time to finish her speech for the next day; after it was all done she went to bed but couldn't sleep, maybe it was the time zone.

She got up, put a nice black dress and headed downstairs to the bar. At least she would relax a little, get a drink, maybe talk to someone…

It was a very fancy bar with live music and all that. She sat at a stool and asked for an appletini. Suddenly the music stopped and a guy started to talk.

"Ladies and gentleman, I'd like to introduce you to our very talented piano man, Richard!" Some people clapped and some girls started to whistle.

She didn't bother to look at the stage; she just kept looking at her drink. The guy started to play and she felt something so emotional and touching about the melody that she had to look. But when she turned around she almost fell from the stool.

'Is this… is this_ House?' _She could recognize that face from anywhere. 'But he's dead. Isn't him?' She went closer to the stage and kept staring at the guy. 'Well he's shaved and his hair is shorter, but he looks so much like House!'

The way he played was certainly like House's. With his eyes closed and his head tilted backwards.

'No, it can't be him. House died more than a year ago. You were there at his funeral. Am I mad or something? Well I'm talking with myself about seeing dead people. That definitely isn't sane.'

She went to the guy that introduced him-probably the host. He was talking with some girls.

"Excuse me, sir?" she put a hand in his shoulder to make him turn around.

"Yes ma'am?"

"I'm sorry to bother you, but what was that piano guy's name again?"

"Richard. He's here every night from 21:00 to 23:00" he gave her a commercial smile.

"Hum… Thank you" she smiled and went to finish her drink. She kept looking at the stage from time to time just to be sure, but he seemed so concentrated in his music he wasn't even looking away from the piano keys.

"If I were you I'd give up already." The Bartender girl told her

"What?" she tried to sound confused

"Oh, don't give me that look! I noticed you staring at Rick. I know he seems awesome but he's not into dating, at least not here. When he started to work here I thought he was married but I've never seen a ring on his finger and he's kind of lonely… Now I think he's just gay. And let me say, what a waste!"

The thought of House being gay made her laugh. If this guy was gay, then he was obviously not House.

"Well, ha... hum no, that's not it. I just thought he looked a lot like an old friend of mine…"

"You know, you're actually not the first person to say that. A couple of doctors came here and thought Rick was an old doctor they used to work with. I guess it was just a coincidence. I'm quite sure he's not a doctor, or else he wouldn't be working here for 100 bucks an hour, right?" The girl laughed and walked away to serve other costumers.

He died. Wilson called her when it happened. She went to the funeral and cried for months about it. How could he possibly be there? Maybe that girl was right. It could all be a coincidence and that guy just looked a lot like House. Yeah that can happen. Two different guys that look like each other and play the piano. Hey there's no cane near him! He's definitely not House.

She was starting to convince herself when she heard a familiar unmistakable voice she hasn't heard in a while.

"I'd like to finish the night with a song of my own composure"

She turned around quickly to the stage. _It's him!_

She would never forget that deep blue eyes. He could change his name, cut his hair and shave, but those eyes, the eyes that she spent more than half of her life staring, those eyes she'd never forget.

"I wrote it for a big friend of mine that's no longer here with us." He said and with that he started to play.

It was a slow, sad beautiful melody. She knew he wrote it for Wilson, and it was obviously hard for him to play it. He closed his eyes slowly as he finished the song. Everybody started to clap.

"Thank you" he said.

And she realized she was crying. Because of the song, the memories of Wilson that kept coming to her mind as he played the song and the emotion/surprise of seeing him again, alive.

She turned to the bar and grabbed a napkin to clean her eyes blurry with tears and mascara.

When she looked back at the stage he was gone.

"Hey, where did he go?" She asked the barman

"He's probably backstage grabbing his stuff." The guy said pointing at a door at the corner of the stage. "But you can't go in there it's an employer's- ma'am?" But she was already gone.

She opened the quickly opened the door and got in.

He was with his back at the door holding his cane and trying to grab his back pack.

"Sorry, it's an employer's only area, you can't come in here" he turned around and froze.

"Hi" Was the only thing he was able to say after five long minutes. His mouth was slightly open and he looked really scared.

"You're alive." She whispered almost crying again.

They kept staring at each other for what seemed like hours. He was completely lost in her eyes. The big grey eyes he thought he would never see again.

She looked gorgeous. Her hair was longer and there were big curls falling on her shoulder, she was wearing a black dress that showed perfectly all her curves. Her body was exactly the way he remembered.

He was bought back to earth when he felt her arms wrapping around him. He didn't move an inch, just inhaled the smell of her hair and closed his eyes waiting for her to say something.

She broke the embrace and looked at him in the eyes.

"How did you do it?" was the first thing that crossed her confused mind. When he didn't answer she asked again

"I mean, you were dead! I was at your funeral! How can you be here like that? And, Richard? Wha… what kind of name is that? I… I'm… could you please say something so I can stop thinking I'm an insane freak that believes in ghosts?"

"I… I don't… I don't know what to say…" He sat at the couch behind them and looked at the floor. She sat at the other end and looked at him.

"You could start telling me what's going on here"

"Don't you hate me? You were supposed to hate me. I mean, after all I did to you, you should be out in Vegas having a party over my death or something" She looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"How can you say that? How can you even think that I'd be happy over your death?" she looked very pissed.

"Of course I was mad at you, and of course I hated you. But it lasted like a month or so. Then I started to miss you, I started to miss the little things like fighting with you because of clinic duty or being wake in the middle of the night because you wanted to do an insane surgery in one of your patients" A little smile formed in her face as she talked.

"In the end I started to hate myself because I missed you, and I was fine with that. Then one day Wilson called me and told me about the accident…" she stopped for a few seconds trying to fight the tears that were starting to build in her eyes.

"He told me you were dead and my whole world just crashed down right there. I realized that the last time I saw you we were in court, with me hating you and you going to prison." A tear rolled down her cheek but she quickly brushed away.

"All I wanted was to tell you how sorry I was and… I just…" she covered her face with her hands and started do cry.

House couldn't stay there and watch her like this, it was too painful. He slowly put an arm around her and bought her close to him. She immediately grabbed his waist and sobbed hard against his chest.

"You don't have to apologize for anything, I was the wrong one. I was the crappy boyfriend who didn't show up when you needed me, I drove a car into your house and I made you move away from your home, job and friends. If anyone has to say sorry here, that's me. You did absolutely nothing wrong."

He felt her starting to calm down, but wasn't ready to let go of her yet. Still with his arms around her he decided to tell her what happened.

"I faked my death so I could stay with Wilson in his final months. It initially was a great plan, until the day he died. I had nothing. Everything I had was House's and Greg House was dead. I had to move and start another life away from everything I knew. First I thought about going to Vegas and spent all the money I had left with gambling and hookers" She looked up at him with a disapproval look.

"_But_ I had promised Wilson I'd try to have a new life out of those addictions, so I went to rehab again and cleaned up." She looked back at him with a smile on her face.

"Really?"

"Yeah really. Please don't interrupt the story." He said joking.

"Continuing, when I was out I thought '_what do I like more than medicine?' _And since it was gonna be hard to be a male prostitute with a limp, I decided to play the piano. And since I was roommates with the owner of this hotel back in the rehab _and _he owned me a favor, I came to work here." He looked at her

"Now you can talk." he said.

She sat back at her spot in the couch breaking their embrace.

"What about the name? Why did you choose Richard?"

"Because now when someone calls me a dick, it won't be an insult it will be a nickname." She let out a little chuckle

"Oh, and 'cause I look a lot like Richard Gere!"

"You are an insane stupid crazy asshole, you know?"

"Yeah I've been told." The corner of his mouth lifted a bit forming a little smile.

"It was an awesome thing you did for Wilson. I'm happy you were there for him."

"Well, guess I can say I learn with my mistakes." He felt the tension in her face so decided to change the subject.

"What about you? What are you doing here?"

"Medical conference. I finished this study about diabetes, and as the dean of medicine the board thought it would be good to promote the hospital so, they made me come, even against my will."

"Still the same hot workaholic dean of medicine. Good to know some things never change." She smiled.

_He said I was hot. _Things are starting to feel least awkward.

"So uh… How's everything? Besides the hospital and going to places you don't want to."

"Oh my God. I actually never thought I would live to see this! Greg House is making small talk! Guess some things _do _change after all" He laughed

"Ha-ha yeah… first of all, Gregory House is dead. I'm Richard BonerMan." She smiled after hearing his last name

"Sure! Forgot about that detail."

"Second of all, I'm _not_ making small talk. I just haven't seen you in years and I wanna know what I missed, that's all."

"Okay… I'm living in NY for almost 4 years now, still dean of medicine as I said before and still a single mother… well, that's basically it!"

"WOW! Wow… really, what an exiting life!" he said in a mock tone

"It's like living the dream!"

"Hum… what about Rachel? How is she?" he said in a serious tone after an awkward silence set up

"She's great! She just started at 1st grade now and she's already the best in her class, she's starting ballet too… oh! And she's playing the piano now." They both smiled

"Told you she was a smart kid"

"Yeah… you did." She sighed

"Well, I have to go now! There's a rat waiting for me at home and I don't want him to be worried." She chuckled

"I have to go too. I have to give a lecture tomorrow morning" they both got up from the couch.

"Was nice talking to you,_ Richard_. Hope we can to this again some other time." She smiled and started to walk to towards the door

_Did she just say AGAIN?_

"Hey Cuddy"

"What House?" she turned to face him

"Would you like to have lunch with Richard tomorrow?" she laughed

"Sure, why not?"

"Good. He'll be waiting for you at 13:00 here in the hotel restaurant"

"Okay. Tell him not to be late."

"Don't worry 'bout that. Richard BonerMan is never late."

"I'm really starting to like this guy" They both smiled and she left.

At night House was lying in his bed thinking about what happened. '_A new life a new chance, right?' _He smiled and drifted to sleep.


End file.
